Senior swimmers scoop top award

SOUTHPORT Swimming Club’s senior team have won their first major competition for a numbers of years.

Taking part in the countries premier club competition, The National Speedo League, Southport competed against the top clubs and squads from the North West.

After the two preliminary rounds, the senior team were ranked in fourth place going into the Division One final at the 50m Commonwealth Pool in Manchester.

Competing in the final against City of Carlisle, Pioneer 79 (Accrington), Newton Hall (Fylde Coast) and four other clubs, the Sandgrounders knew it was a tall order.

After the first eight races out of the 40 event match, the Southport swimmers had already clocked up four wins and were in the top three on two others.

At that early stage of the gala, Southport had already placed their team in equal first position, which boosted their confidence as they continued winning.

With four events to go, the officials informed Southport’s coaches they had already won the final and they would be crowned as the North West Speedo League Division One Champions for 2007.

As the top juniors are now filtering through into the senior ranks, the club is now becoming one of the top teams in the North after the recent success of the juniors coming third in the National Junior Final in Wolverhampton.

The club were also awarded with a second trophy in the same week, when officials from the club collected the top overall club award for the Liverpool and District Championships.

It was presented for the amount of points the club obtained in the championships earlier in the year – in total the swimmers won 101 medals (1st – 3rd) and a further 128 top eight places that all counted for points.